Thursday, January 19, 2012

New interview: Darius Hanks talks dominating East-West Shrine Bowl and Alabama preparing him for the NFL

By: @LivingCrimson

Darius Hanks vs LSU BCSDarius Hanks has been one of my favorite Alabama players in his years at the Capstone. He’s team oriented, a hard worker, and a very underrated receiver. So it’s good news to hear he’s turning in excellent routes and hardnosed, physical play at the East-West Shrine Bowl. NFL scouts are finally beginning to take notice. Nice article from Matt Scalici at Al.com with comments from scouts and NFL observers.

NFLDraftScout.com ranked him 74 out of 343 wide receivers and doesn’t even project him to be drafted. Hopefully winning the national championship, impressing scouts at the East-West game and turning in a strong Combine performance will elevate Hanks’ draft status considerably. Darius played for four years at Bama (2008-2011), doing a great job blocking and never selfishly demanding the ball for a higher profile. When he was tossed the ball, he was a very reliable receiver with soft hands and toughed it out for yards after catch.

RookieDraft.com has been posting highlights from each practice day at the East-West Shrine Bowl and notes Darius has been firing out of his stance and looks very quick on the field. Joe Everett caught up with Hanks for an interesting interview. When asked what he would miss most about Alabama, he said, “Winning.” He goes on to comment about Coach Saban, facing Dre Kirkpatrick in practice, and outbattling Tyrann Mathieu in the LSU games.

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Darius wisely chose a very experienced agent, Peter Schaffer, high profile rep for many football stars including Barry Sanders and Russell Okung. He plans to work on his 40 speed by training at Velocity Sports Performance in Naples, Florida. Hanks wants to run a flat 4.4 at the Combine; pretty good considering A.J. Greene ran a 4.48 and Julio Jones ran a 4.39.

If anybody can achieve goals through hard work and mental toughness, my money is on Darius Hanks.

Hanks is a graduate of The University of Alabama with a degree in Consumer Affairs. He was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and received the Alabama Ray Perkins Receiver Award for 2011, along with Marquis Maze.

More Bama updates on Twitter @LivingCrimson.

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